After they behaved badly and almost ruined the entire world financial system while pocketing fat fees along the reckless road they laid down, the big banks got 'made whole' by the Federal Reserve.

While couched at the time in fancy acronyms, a lot of complexity, and some good old motherhood and apple pie (that is, the Fed talked about helping the economy recover and people get their jobs back), the truth of the matter is simply that the Fed cared only about helping the big banks repair their balance sheets.